character of all my correspondence of late, and may be the cause, though I trust not, of getting me into difficulties with my old friends; but I am pretty well employed, and find it very hard to get through even a portion of my private correspondence. We seem in a pretty mess all round, and by the time this reaches you we may be at war with Russia: where such a war may spread to it is difficult to say; when once begun it will, not improbably, embrace the whole world. We are, generally speaking, much to blame in England for allowing such a state of things to exist on the Afghan frontier as has now been brought about. The country has been warned over and over again of what the encroachments of Russia in Central Asia pointed to, but it has preferred the blessed far niente existence of a fool's paradise to adopting energetic action at the moment and meeting the threatening movements of Russia at a favourable time. The country will now have to face as the result of its culpable indifference a serious war. The folly, the moral cowardice, many have shown in not choosing to see the palpable and continuous deceit of Russia is very sad. A stitch in time would have saved a great deal. As regards affairs out here, I am beginning to think that there will be no autumn campaign on the Upper Nile and that the Government do not seriously contemplate going to Khartoum at all. In the meantime, whether there be such a campaign or not, the troops on the Upper Nile will have a very, very trying summer to pass, which will result, I fear, in much loss of life from sickness. The Suakin force has already suffered considerably; probably to-day or to-morrow it will be at Tamai, and then the results of this campaign may be virtually decided. The most serious consideration next to our loss in men is that of the transport animals, which are required in large numbers and not so easily replaced. I must close abruptly, for the post corporal is waiting.— Ever yours affectionately,
Fredk. Stephenson.
To his Sister
My dear Minny, — ^Wolseley has just come down here, and his wife and daughter have come out from England to meet him. I have a big dinner for them on Wednesday for twenty-two, and on Thursday the Khedive gives another; on Friday, Wolseley and staff go down to Suakin, where they will remain about a week. I am afraid there is no likelihood of my tumbling into the Secretaryship at the Horse Guards which you wrote about some time ago. I have heard nothing of it, and the appointment which should have been vacant on the I St of this month has been temporarily renewed. If I could not have been spared from here then, I cannot be now, and how long this Soudan business will last no one can tell. A curious extract from the Daily Telegraph has been published here to-day, announcing that the Italian Government is prepared to take over the occupation of the Soudan, in the event of our troops, which are now there, being required for India. I cannot quite believe this, although some such arrangement will have to be made, perhaps with the Turks, if we go to war with Russia, for we cannot afford to have two wars upon our hands at the same time. Whenfare we going to get rid of this wretched Gladstone.)^ and his useless Government? It is really a shame upon us that we allow our country to be so long misruled by such people. The Russians and the French, as well as the Germans, are playing with their credulity, what they are pleased to call forbearance, and incapacity, and our country is being lowered and its interests neglected.
We are having the most delightful weather you can possibly imagine, nothing can be more perfect; no real heat, nothing but the most delicious warmth — how you would enjoy it 1
Cairo, June 6, 1885. — It is impossible to say what is likely to happen here, but I am beginning to get very
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
sick of serving such a Government as our present one: the result is nothing but discredit and mortification to us all....
To Lady Elizabeth Romilly
... The political atmosphere seems much more temperate since the new Ministry came into power. The very great tension which existed in our foreign relations with all the great powers except Italy has apparently relaxed, and we are no longer living, I think, upon the volcano which really at one time seemed ready to burst forth at any moment.
The Afghan question still remains open; the Russians see, I think, that England does not intend, under her present rulers, to make any more concessions, and they are endeavouring to delay coming to a final settlement in the hopes that the next election will bring back Mr. Gladstone and get still more out of him by cajolery and bullying.